The news article that is the subject of this post is about a 1986 A-platform Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera that Hillary Clinton had once owned.

Delena Holcer-Cohrs, an old acquaintance of mine, formerly of Clyde Township, Michigan (located just outside of Port Huron, Michigan) and now lives in Olympia, Washington; had owned 3 of these A-platform Oldsmobile Cutlass Cieras that were similar to this one.

Hillary Rodham-Clinton had fallen for all of the work that General Motors’ Research & Development department had done during the development of the A-platform in the 1970’s, leading to the facts that the windshield being recessed and flushly mounted into the body like no automobile design that came before it, amongst other factors into the styling of all divisions’ cars would lead to a great significance in aerodynamics; and that front-wheel-drive, unibody cars were not only the wave of the future; but also, the unibody architecture allowed for a significant weight reduction over a frame-on-body car, that the engine being transversely mounted not only allowed for more interior room and trunk space (cargo space in terms of the A-wagons) because of the engine being turned sideways, and the transverse layout also helped contribute to more even weight above the front wheels, allowing for better side-to-side weight distribution; and the front-wheel-drive layout alone, alongside the transverse engine layout; helps the car have better traction in most circumstances for the average driver, and in some cases, also allows for better handling for the casual driver.

Although there’s no denying the fact that there is no substitution for the handling characteristics put out by a rear-wheel-drive vehicle.

Although this car has the 2.5 liter cast-iron “Tech 4” 4-cylinder engine, which had debuted in 1977 as the replacement for the problematic 2.3 liter 4-cylinder engine fabricated out of aluminum that was famous for contributing to the laundry list of problems for the Chevrolet Vega and it’s corporate siblings each had; Hillary Rodham-Clinton had fallen for this 4-cylinder engine having also been used in the Chevrolet Citation and it’s X-platform siblings, therefore; making it simple for General Motors to include this engine into the transverse-mounted layout of the A-platform; and the 2.8 liter V6 having been developed in 1979 originally for the A-platform, and was developed as a homegrown replacement intended for front-wheel-drive cars with the transverse layout for the 3.3 and 3.8 liter V6s that were modified GM Small-Block V8 and in the same 90 degree V6 engine architecture as the 4.3 liter V6 that was used in the GM X-platform as stopgaps until the 2.8 liter V6 had gone into production. The 2.8 liter V6 had evolved into the General Motors 60 degree V6 engines displaced at 3.1 and 3.4 liters.

The 2.8 liter V6 had also been used in conventional longitudinally-mounted form in the Chevrolet/GMC S-Series compact pickup trucks and SUVs before it was supplanted in these compact trucks by the 90 degree 4.3 liter V6 in 1990, AMC had used this engine in the XJ Cherokee and MJ Comanche before AMC, just before the acquisition by Chrysler; had begin to use the 4.0 liter inline-6 in the XJ and MJ, and Isuzu had also used this engine in addition to the 3.1 liter V6 that this engine had evolved into in the Isuzu Bighorn/Trooper/Holden Jackaroo, Isuzu Mu/Rodeo/Amigo/Holden Frontera; and in the Isuzu Faster/Holden Rodeo (the pickup truck was given the Rodeo name by Holden in the Oceanic market while the SUVs were given the Rodeo name by Isuzu in the North American market) (this pickup truck was simply known as just the ‘Isuzu Pickup’ in the North American market).

the General Motors 90 degree 3.3 and 3.8 liter V6 engines should not be confused with the Buick Aluminum-block 3.3 and 3.8 liter V6s, which is the V6 engine that General Motors had sold to Kaiser/Jeep in the 1960’s for use in the CJ-5 and CJ-6, is a V6 variant of the Buick/Rover V8 that the British had purchased from General Motors in 1963; and more regarding this Buick V6 engine-GM had purchased the tooling for this engine back from AMC when AMC had acquired Jeep in 1970 and had begun to use their own 3.8 and 4.2 liter inline-6 engines in place of this Buick V6, and GM couldn’t have picked a better time to repurchase the tooling for this engine, as this V6 engine was just what they needed during the advent of the 1973 oil crisis, and this V6 engine that is fabricated out of aluminum put out an amount of power equal to the 350, 454, and 455 cubic inch Small and Big Block V8s that GM had decided to swap out in favor of this V6 engine to allow their vehicles of this time to have better fuel economy while putting out the same amount of power as the V8s that this V6 engine had superseded. At the time when GM had first brought out this engine in 1961, along with it’s V8 brethren that the British had later purchased; both this V6 and the V8 engine were displaced at 3.5 liters. The displacement of this V6 engine had been increased to 3.8 liters after GM had repurchased the tooling for this engine in the 1970’s, and had been increased furthermore to 4.1 liters in 1980 for use in certain GM B-platform vehicles.

Hillary Rodham-Clinton had also fallen for Oldsmobile, which, along with Buick; had attracted the same type of consumer who was interested in buying an entry-level luxury car, was right smack dab in the middle of the hierarchy of GM’s brands, with Pontiac being just below Oldsmobile and Buick being located right above Oldsmobile but just below Cadillac being at the very top. This means that Buick was just a step below Cadillac in terms of prestige and the amount of content that Buick-branded vehicles normally came with. Nevertheless, Hillary probably fell for the amount of luxury features that Oldsmobile-branded vehicles still came with, though normally; it was never quite as much content as Buick-branded vehicles came with.

And perhaps, Hillary Rodham-Clinton was probably attracted to Oldsmobile’s slogan at this time being: “Oldsmobile Quality, Feel It”.

Below is a video of the A-platform Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera that Hillary Rodham-Clinton had once owned during the tail end of her husband’s time as Governor of Arkansas, prior to her husband’s election as the President of the United States.

For sale: 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera Brougham with 33,090 miles and blue crushed-velour seats.

Source: ARKANSAS PLATE STILL ON: Hillary Clinton’s Olds: How much?